USA > Oklahoma > A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II > Part 79
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When the country no longer needed his aid. Mr. Norvell returned home and con- tinued to reside upon the farm in Linn county, Missouri, until August, 1902, when he removed to Tulsa, where he has since been located. He still owns farming and other interests in Linn county and was well known in that locality as a representative, public-spirited and valued citizen. His fel- low townsmen, recognizing his worth and loyalty to the general good, made him chair- man of the township board and for several years he served as justice of the peace. He is now acting as notary public and attends to the clerical duties in Judge Slack's court. His political allegiance has always been given to the Democracy and he is inflexible in its support.
On September 18, 1866, Mr. Norvell was married to Lucy A. E. Stanley, who died May 9, 1877. To this union were born : Mrs. Dora E. Hull, Mrs. Margaret F. Trip- lett, Willard T. and Edward M. March 18. 1828, Mr. Norvell married for his second wife, Lucy F. Edgar and to them have been born: Woodson E., Mrs. Laura M. Gilles-
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pie, Mrs. Corda McFadden and Mrs. Mary C. Moore, all of whom are still living. The youngest son, Hon. Woodson E. Norvell, of Tulsa, is a lawyer and at the general elec- tion of September 17. 1907, was chosen to represent the district in the state legisla- ture.
George H. Norvell is prominent in the ranks of Fairchild Post, No. 26, G. A. R., in which he is now serving as adjutant. He is a man universally liked, having social qualities and a kindly generous spirit which have gained him the friendship of the great majority of those with whom he has come in contact.
HASKELL B. TALLEY. In no profession does advancement depend more largely up- on individual merit and ability than in the law and Haskell B. Talley, spoken of by those who know him as a prominent young lawyer, has attained to his present position of distinction by reason of comprehensive study and a thorough grasp of judicial prin- ciples. He was born at Murfreesboro, Ten- nessee, in 1812, that historic city having been the ancestral home of the Talleys for several generations. They were related to the Murfrees, Palmers and Readys and prominently connected with the early his- tory of that portion of the state. Mr. Tal- ley's parents, who are still living at their old home in Tennessee, are Edwin W. and Katie (Burlason) Talley, the mother a mem- ber of the famous Burlason family of North Carolina and Texas, that has produced sev- eral prominent characters notable in the history of the southern states.
Haskell B. Talley acquired an excellent education, spending all of the period of his boyhood and youth as a student and pur- suing his course with industry and ambi- tion .. He mastered the branches of a liter- ary course in Webb School at Bellbuckle, Tennessee, and pursued his college course in the Southwestern Presbyterian Univer- sity at Clarksville, Tennessee. His legal preparation was particularly broad and am- ple, as he was a law student in Vanderbilt University, in Harvard Law School and in the George Washington Law School at Washington, being graduated from the lat- ter with the class of 1905 with the degree of Doctor of Civil Laws.
Prior to completing his studies in Wash- ington, however, Mr. Talley entered upon the active practice of the law, coming to
Tulsa for that purpose, his residence here dating from May 1, 1904. Although he at first engaged in the profession as a general practitioner, he has more recently confined his attention to corporation and land law and in these branches is eminently success- ful, being widely recognized as one of the scholarly and efficient members of the bar of the new state.
EDWARD JAMES BONACKER, of Red Fork, Tulsa county, Oklahoma, an extensive oil operator and capitalist, was born in Johns- town, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, No- vember 22, 1862. His parents were William and Emeline (Sidels) Bonacker, both of German ancestry and both now deceased. When Edward J. was a child his parents moved to Stevenson county, Illinois, locat- ing at Freeport, where they resided until 1874, and then moved to Hardin county, Iowa. In 1881, Edward J. went to Cali- fornia, remaining eight months and in 1882 went to Payson, in Central Arizona, where he accepted a position with an uncle who had large financial interests there. He con- tinned to reside in that portion of the coun- try for nineteen years, engaging in mining, merchandising and cattle-raising.
About the beginning of the year 1903, he located at Red Fork, Indian Territory, for the purpose of engaging in the oil busi- ness, of which he is one of the best known pioneers in the Mid-Contient oil field. He was on the ground at the time the first oil wells were discovered at Red Fork, in Feb- ruary, 1903, which was really the commence- ment of the oil industry in that section and which has proven to be among the richest in all America. Mr. Bonacker has been en- gaged as an operator and developer in oil ever since that date. He was one of the organizers and promotors of the Superior Oil and Gas Company, which obtained one of the first leases in the noted Glenn Pool, and as such he has made a large amount of money out of his operations. In the autumn of 190℃ he organized the Bonacker Oil and Gas Company, of which he is president, with a capital of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, to operate on valuable leases, amounting to one thousand acres, that he acquired near Catoosa. One of the published accounts of his holdings states that: "E. J. Bonacker, president of the company is manager and one-fifth owner of the Superior Oil and Gas Company, now operating a lease in the Glenn Pool with a
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daily production of fifteen hundred barrels. He was a pioneer in this field and has de- veloped a property worth five hundred thousand dollars from a lease worth, at the time he took it, not over a thousand dol- lars. Mr. Bonacker resides at Red Fork, the town where the first oil was struck in Indian Territory, and has known the oil field from first hand, personally from the first day of its discovery." .
Mr. Bonacker has a beautiful home in Red Fork, where he is treasurer of the school board, showing that with all of his varied business interests, he forgets not his duty as a good citizen who always takes an interest in educational affairs. His politics are Democratic and he has been on the council several terms.
Before her marriage, his wife was Miss Ruth Stewart, born in Fort Worth, Texas. The children of this happy union are: Lorena L., Viola C. and Edward Jennings Bonacker. Mrs. Bonacker is a member of the Methodist church and Mr. Bonacker is steward of the same, but not a member.
He is a true type of the progressive Amer- ican, having seen merit in the new and un- tried parts of his continent and having the business hardihood to grapple with the great problems, he has achieved the suc- cess of which such pioneers are always worthy.
CHARLES T. HARLOW. An individual ex- ample of the white settlers who began en- tering the Indian country during the years following the Civil war is found in Charles T. Harlow, who now lives with his family on his farm two miles northwest of Tulsa. It was forty-two years ago, or in 1866, that he came into the Indian Territory, then just recovering from the Civil war, and located on Bird Creek, in the Cherokee Na- tion, about where the town of Skiatook stands, twelve miles north of Tulsa. There are few white citizens whose residence in this or adjoining nations antedates the year 1866. He began tilling the soil and raising stock as an occupation, and has continued in the same lines ever since, though of course the development of the country through settlement, the coming of the rail- roads, and the influence of apportionment pf lands and statehood have each marked changes in methods and conditions of in- dustry and living to which Mr. Harlow has adapted himself, and by which he and
his family have also benefited. He recalls the hardships of pioneer life but at the same time remembers that that life had its pleasures. He owns a fine farm with five hundred acres in cultivation, two and a half miles northwest of Tulsa, this being one of the best farming estates in the coun- try. Oil and gas rigs are now a feature of the farm landscape, and with the discovery and development of these natural resources, Mr. Harlow has correspondingly profited in increased farm values.
Charles T. Harlow was born on a farm in Dane county, Wisconsin, September 6, 1849, when a child was taken to Iowa, and from that state in 1861 to Kansas, where, in a home on the frontier in what is now Greenwood county, he was reared to young manhood. It was this early practice in frontier life that brought him so early into the realm of the Indian, and until the last decade he has been a neighbor to the In- dians rather than to white men. His wife is of the Osage Indian stock on her mother's side. Before her marriage she was Miss Susan Perrier. She was reared and edu- cated at the old Osage Indian mission in Kansas. For the past few years the Har- low family have resided in Tulsa, until the spring of 1908, when they moved back on the farm. The children are: Joe, Jay, Charles C., Grace, Belle.
HON. PETER J. YEAGER, who has the hon- or of being a member of the first state sen- ate and is well known in business circles as a successful merchant of Tulsa, belongs to that class of representative men who are conducting prosperous business enter- prises and at the same time find opportunity for co-operation in matters of progressive citizenship. He was born at Columbus, Ohio, April 10, 1859, his parents being Peter and Mary (Ness) Yeager. His fa- ther was born in the kingdom of Bavaria, in 1830, acquired a good education in the schools of his native land and afterward spent six years as a soldier of the German army. In 1858 he and his wife crossed the Atlantic to America and became residents of Columbus, Ohio, then called Franklin- ton. Though practically penniless when he arrived in the new world, by the thrift and industry which he displayed year by year he made steady advancement toward the goal of prosperity and is today one of the substantial citizens of Columbus, whose possessions enable him to live retired and
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yet enjoy all the comforts and many of the luxuries of life. He began his business career there as a shoemaker and later turned his attention to merchandising, developing his enterprise into one of the large com- mercial establishments of the city.
Thus from boyhood, Hon. Peter J. Yea- ger, of this review, was connected more or less closely with mercantile interests and gained a thorough knowledge of the best methods of conducting business in that line. He started out in life for himself at the age of twenty with a capital of five hundred dollars and making his way to Illinois on the 21st of April, 1879, he opened a grocery store in Guthrie, Ford county. Winning the confidence and esteem of the people of that rich section of the country he soon secured a liberal patronage and through ju- dicious management and honorable meth- ods his business enjoyed constant success and gradual expansion. He accumulated valuable landed interests in Dixon township, Ford county, Illinois, and was also the own- er of the Guthrie creamery. Thus his busi- ness grew in volume and importance and brought him gratifying financial return an- nually. He was also the recipient of not- able public honors at the hands of his fel- low townsmen, who recognized his worth and ability and who called him to serve at different times as school director, as county commissioner and as postmaster of Guth- rie, and he filled the latter position for thirteen years, giving a public-spirited ad- ministration that won him high encomiums. He was the chairman of the Democratic county convention there in 1892 and on sev- eral occasions was sent as a delegate to the county and. state conventions of his party. In local councils he wielded a wide influence and his labors in behalf of the party are effective and far-reaching.
In 1895, Mr. Yeager removed with his family to Stuttgart, Arkansas, where he es- tablished and conducted a successful mer- cantile business for six years. He then re- moved to Tahlequah, the capital of the Cherokee Nation of the Indian Territory, where he remained in business for three years. He was the organizer and promoter of the present public school system of Tahlequah, circulating the petition which resulted in the establishment of the free school for white children at that place. He was elected a member of the school board and did everything in his power to estab-
lish the schools upon a substantial basis and instituted a school system which would be a credit as well as a benefit to the com- munity. Mr. Yeager is always a stalwart champion of public education and his ef- forts in that direction have been most beneficial to his fellow citizens.
On the 1st of December, 1904, Mr. Yea- ger established himself in business in Tulsa, where he has since resided, his store being located at No. 103 Main street. Moreover, he maintains a pleasant home here, over which his wife, formerly Miss Mary Weller, graciously presides. She was a daughter of a pioneer citizen of Ford county, Illinois, and their marriage was celebrated in that county, December 6, 1881. They have be- come the parents of eight children, namely : Fred P., Grover C., Irene Elizabeth, Val- eria Helen, Clarence W., Marie W., George W. and William W.
Since locating in Tulsa, Mr. Yeager has taken a prominent part in its public life and formerly served as a member of the city council. In this body his main work was in connection with the promotion of meas- ures requiring an adequate tax or reimburse- ment in other form for franchises granted to public service corporations. He strong- ly advocated the ownership of city water- works and he also advocated meritorious measures in the interest of the laboring classes and has always been a valued and faithful friend of labor and trades unions. In 1907, without solicitation on his part he received the Democratic nomination of the state senate for the first session of the Ok- lahoma legislature under statehood, and was elected as representative from the thir- ty-first senatorial district at the general elec- tion on the 17th of September of that year. The senate convened in the following De- cember and Mr. Yeager has already proven himself a valuable member of the upper house of the general assembly. He has done particularly effective work as a repre- sentative of the oil and gas district of Ok- lahoma in securing the passage of a bill providing that no natural gas in Oklahoma shall be piped out of the state, a measure which, it is estimated, is worth practically fifty million dollars to the state. He is chairman of the committee of the timber, oil and coal lands and is a member of the committees on mining and manufacturing, oil and gas, municipal corporations, game and fisheries, military, uniformity of county
EMrightsman
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records, warehouses and elevators, and in this connection is doing able and effective work in formulating the policy of the new state, leaving the impress of his individu- ality upon the history of its most important session of the general assembly. He looks at life in a broad minded way, desiring the general good of the commonwealth and never placing partisanship before the pub- lic welfare and always keeping the inter- ests of the community before personal ag- grandizement. Fraternally, he is connected with the Knights of Pythias, the Odd Fel- lows, the Elks and the Woodmen. Viewed in a personal light, Mr. Yeager is a strong man, strong in his honor and his good name, strong in his ability to plan and to perform, and with a business and political career that are alike above reproach.
REUBEN L. PARTRIDGE, now residing in Tulsa, was born in 1868, in the Creek Na- tion near Coweta, in what is now Wagoner county, Oklahoma. His father was a full blood Creek Indian, while his mother was a Creek Indian of mixed blood, who bore the maiden name of China Perryman and was a sister of Legus C. Perryman, an ex- chief of the Creek Nation, who still resides in Tulsa, and is well known and prominent there. The parents are both now deceased. The uncle, L. C. Perryman, was born in Springtown in the Creek Nation in 1838 and has spent his entire life in the Nation, being prominent among the Creeks. He served for several terms in both houses of the council and was chief or governor of the Nation for three terms. He has wielded a very wide influence among his people and is a man of excellent ability, who is yet a factor in community interests although he has now attained the age of seventy years.
Reuben L. Partridge was reared near Tulsa, the old family home being about four miles below the present city. He was for two years a student at Tullahassee Mis- sion, and in 1882 entered the Wealaka Mis- sion School, where he continued his studies until 1887. He likewise attended school for about two years in Tulsa and thus through liberal educational advantages became well qualified for life's practical and responsible duties in connection with business affairs. After putting aside his text-books he ac- cepted a clerkship in the store of H. C. Hall & Company of Tulsa, where he remained for two years, acting also as interpreter for
the firm because of his comprehensive and thorough understanding of both the Indian and English languages. Later he spent a short time as clerk in a drug store and after- ward remained for two years on A. J. Perry- man's cattle ranch. His time and energies are now devoted to the real estate business in Tulsa and he is giving considerable at- tention to Indian lands and mining leases, acting as intrepreter in business transac- tions between the Indians and the English- speaking people. He is a man of good busi- ness discernment and each forward step in his career has brought him a broader out- look and wider opportunities. He has met with creditable success in his undertakings and is now well known in business circles.
Mr. Partridge was married to Miss Bertha Poindexter, a native of Indiana, who was a teacher in the Hillside school in the In- dian Territory and for one year in Tulsa. They have two children: Leonard C. and Ruby Marguerite. Mr. Partridge during his earlier years served for three terms as committee clerk in the Creek council at Okmulgee. Politically he is a Republican and among the fraternities his choice is the Knights of Pythias. In the recognition and improvement of his opportunities he has met with success and is now a prominent representative of real estate operations.
HON. CHARLES J. WRIGHTSMAN, a dis- tinguished lawyer and a former member of the senate of Oklahoma, was born in Day- ton, Ohio, on September 7, 1868, a son of Dr. P. R. and Elizabeth (Witter) Wrights- man, the former a Virginian and the latter a native of South Bend, Indiana. To ac- quaint the reader more fully concerning the parentage and ancestry of the Hon. Charles J. Wrightsman it should be stated that the grandfather, Daniel Wrightsman, was born in Virginia, and there owned and managed a large plantation. During the war of 1812 he enlisted for service and took part in the battle of New Orleans under General Jack- son with the rank of lieutenant. Later he became an honored resident of Tennessee, where he entered a tract of government land near Limestone. He was opposed to slavery on general principles and reared his sons as true patriots. Dr. P. R. Wrightsman gradu- ated at the Cincinnati Eclectic College, and after practicing his profession in Dayton, Ohio, and South Bend, Indiana, he removed to Atlanta, Georgia. During the Civil war he rendered great service to the Union cause
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as a scout, for he was a man of fearless courage and familiar with the topography of Tennessee. He chose for his wife Eliza- beth Witter, a native of Indiana and a daughter of Samuel Witter, one of the ear- liest settlers in St. Joseph county, Indiana.
The Hon. C. J. Wrightsman, a son of Dr. P. R. and Elizabeth (Witter) Wrightsman, is one of the most conspicuous figures con- nected with the history of the first decade of old Oklahoma Territory. In the govern- mental and field of jurisprudence few men of his years and times have risen to higher honors in the section of the country in which he has lived and labored. He at- tended the public schools of South Bend, Indiana, and the normal at Emporia, Kan- sas, after which he matriculated in the Georgetown University, District of Colum- bia, near Washington, and from that most excellent institution he graduated on May 1, 1890, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, and he was at once admitted to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. Being impressed with the vast possibilities for a young man possessing good educational qualifications in the great, ever-changing and limitless west, he decided to cast his lot with the people of Oklahoma City, which he did, in the beautiful autumntime of 1890. He was engaged in law practice there until September 22, 1891, when he removed to Tecumseh, the county seat of Pottawatomie county, Oklahoma.
Another important chapter in Senator Wrightsman's career was opened in the au- tumn of 1892, when he was elected a mem- ber of the Oklahoma Territorial Senate, that being the second legislative session. There he won fame and respect above that which usually comes to men in a lifetime, if in- deed ever. Amongst the several important legislative measures which were enacted, he was the author of the famous anti-gamb- ling bill which, to the present day, remains upon the statutes of the state. At the time of the passage of this law the gamblers in Oklahoma had a most powerful organization dominating both political parties and ac- quiesced in by so-called representative busi- ness men of the time, who ridiculously con- tended that to drive gambling out of their respective cities would drive out trade and incur immeasurable harm. The legislature, in its consideration of this anti-gambling bill, was pitched to a white heat of excite- ment by its members, who were nearly
equally divided on this question. Pending final action of the anti-gambling bill the gamblers of the territory, backed up by var- ious commercial clubs and leading business men, challenged the friends of the bill to a joint debate, which was accepted. At the appointed time the opponents of the bill ran excursion trains into Guthrie from distant parts of the country attempting to impress upon the legislators that the country at large was overwhelmingly opposed to such legislation. However, such efforts signally failed and in spite of all opposing influences the bill became a law and its author suc- ceeded in winning and retaining the esteem of law-abiding citizens wherever cognizant of the controversy.
Mr. Wrightsman is a potent factor in all that is good and praiseworthy in reforms of government for law enforcement and for elimination of corruption from politics. He was appointed county attorney of Pawnee county on September 16, 1893, and taking up the duties of the office continued until July 31, 1894, when he resigned in order to take the position of United States commis- sioner. He made a faithful, able commis- sioner, and in the little republic over which he presided more criminal cases were before him for trial, one year, than in any other administration, save one, in the history of the United States. In the month of Febru- ary, 1898, he resigned from this office in or- der to devote his entire time to the practice of law.
Mr. Wrightsman moved from Pawnee, the county seat, to Tulsa in the spring of 1906. Tulsa was then in the Creek Nation, Indian Territory, but now understood as be- ing Tulsa county, state of Oklahoma. He is a member of the law firm of Wrights- man, Bush & Johnson, engaged in the gen- eral practice of law throughout the state and enjoying as extensive a law business as found in the southwest. Ever since re- siding in Oklahoma he has been a strong factor in Democratic circles ; was one of the founders of the Oklahoma Democratic Ter- ritorial Central Committee, on which he served for a number of years. He was chair- man of the Democratic Territorial Conven- tion which nominated J. R. Keaton for Con- gress and was also chairman of the Oklaho- ma delegation to the National Democratic Convention at Kansas City in 1900, in which he also was elected vice-president in the convention in behalf of his territory. In fra-
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ternal relations, Mr. Wrightsman is a worthy member of the Odd Fellows order, the Knights of Pythias, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, Modern Woodmen of America and of the Benevolent and Protec- tive Order of Elks. He also belongs to the alumni of the Georgetown University.
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